I second those who are saying Canuck Software should get a portion of this. I know there are other developers too but Jason's developments have been nothing short of amazing. Maybe when this starts, include paypal links for both Internals and Canuck Software and a blurb about their contributions to the webOS world. If some new hardware comes out, that might bring some new users in who could learn a thing or two about the wonderful work these two have done. I'm sure other prominent patch developers could be a blurbed too.

I second those who are saying Canuck Software should get a portion of this. I know there are other developers too but Jason's developments have been nothing short of amazing. Maybe when this starts, include paypal links for both Internals and Canuck Software and a blurb about their contributions to the webOS world. If some new hardware comes out, that might bring some new users in who could learn a thing or two about the wonderful work these two have done. I'm sure other prominent patch developers could be a blurbed too.

I also agree that Jason has been getting left out of a lot of the homebrew love (although I suppose it's his own choice to function independently of webos-internals). I've sent a handful of donations to W-I in the past, and while I am using their kernels, backup utilities, log trackers, emulators, etc, we shouldn't forget about WOSQI and his more recent efforts with Internalz. That said, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to do a generic homebrew fundraiser cause it's sorta tough to split up the pot once it's over...maybe the donators themselves should just try to keep the other non-webos-internals guys in mind.

Here's another idea... WebOS telethon to support all the developers who participated in WebOS roundup's recent hackathon project.

Reasons I think this is a good idea:

1) Reward people who got together and did something cool for our phone just 'cause.

2) Single donation link. WebOS Roundup has the contact information for the developers who participated in the WebOS Hackathon (or at least I think they do). They could contact these individuals to find out who would be receptive to donations. Then WebOS Roundup collects the money and distributes it among the participants via some form of electronic transmission.

3) Spreading the love... this spreads the love beyond the instantly recognizable figures of the homebrew world to a larger contingent of WebOS heroes (or so I think... don't know how many of the developers who participated in Hackathon were WebOS Internals people or people who benefited from the last telethon).

This was the first thought that popped into my head after getting Banger's PM. It will obviously involve more legwork than our previous effort, but I think it would be worth doing. Anyone else think this is a good idea to pursue?

I would like to also note that, though I'm willing to take a small role in pushing forward any effort we make, I have way too many other obligations now that I've started law school to take a leading role.

So Banger, you've got the lead at this point if you want it... I'll help where I can.

Last edited by runukraine; 09/02/2010 at 12:42 AM.
Reason: Clarification

Assuming that webOS 2.0, a next generation webOS phone, and a webOS tablet are all announced or released before the end of the year, WebOS Internals is going to need to have a significant donation influx to be able to purchase developer devices for our developers who create Preware, Save/Restore, Govnah, UberKernel, SR71, F10x, WarthogKernel, wIRC, Advanced Configuration for Application Launcher and other patches, to be able to make appropriate changes and test on the new OS and devices.

There are currently 15 WebOS Internals developers (none of which, including myself, have ever received any direct cash from donations to WebOS Internals) listed on WhoIsWho - WebOS Internals - so that adds up to a significant dollar amount just for those developer devices, let alone the additional load on the servers and infrastructure that will also need to be paid for (this additional significant cost is something that other homebrew developers don't need to worry about, because their homebrew packages and patches are served up by our ipkg.preware.org servers at no cost to them).

However, when you divide that significant dollar amount by the number of people who download and use the applications, kernels, patches, etc that we produce, it would only require each user to make a small donation and we would be completely covered for these expenses.

However, past history shows that less than 1/1000th of the users ever donate at all ...

So, just to clarify, when someone donates using the webOS internals link, the donations are divided accordingly to whomever or whatever needs purchased to keep servers running, developer devices, etc.

In other words, people don't have to worry about compensating specific webOS developers, that's all done behind the scenes?

Or, if they want to compensate a specific developer, they can use the donation link in the developer's sig instead of the webOS internals donation link?

There has only ever been just enough donations to WebOS Internals to keep the servers running and to purchase developer hardware devices.

So all WebOS Internals donations have gone directly into purchasing hardware or paying hosting expenses for things that benefit the whole community.

We have never had any cash left over to give any to individual developers for compensation of time and effort. Our developers continue to do this on an unpaid, uncompensated, volunteer basis.

The only compensation we've been able to afford for the time and effort that the members of WebOS Internals puts into the project, is the purchase of developer devices that are used for development and testing (you don't want to be testing new kernels or patches or early access firmware on your main phone).

If we were to add up the market value of the uncompensated time and effort that the 15 people involved have put into this project for the benefit of the webOS community, it would go well into several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I am still here and thinking of the best way this should all be done. As of right now the dates still stand as is. So we still have plenty of time to get it all done. As of right now save your pretty pennies (Like I said before that should in no way prevent you to donate now if you can). Hopefully enough can be raised so all the major players can get the devices they need to test.

I am still here and thinking of the best way this should all be done. As of right now the dates still stand as is. So we still have plenty of time to get it all done. As of right now save your pretty pennies (Like I said before that should in no way prevent you to donate now if you can). Hopefully enough can be raised so all the major players can get the devices they need to test.

I'm currently assuming that a next-gen webOS phone and tablet combo will cost approximately $1000 (just a wild speculative guess).

So that's $16,000 we need to raise (I'm including an additional device set for Jason Robitaille from Canuck Software) to equip our key homebrew developers with devices to create, modify and port the applications, kernels and patches that everyone depends upon for future webOS devices.

That's only a $10 donation from each of 1600 people.

There are 1700+ posts in the UberKernel thread, 1100+ posts in the Save/Restore thread, 900+ posts in each of the Preware and Govnah threads, and 440+ posts in the MetaDoctor thread. That's over 5000 posts in just those threads alone, let alone the majority of people who never have to post in the forum threads because everything just works for them.

I got my pre after the last telethon went down and have always wanted to have that "Homebrew Supporter" title next to my username. Count me in this time. I will donate as much as possible to let the homebrew devs know how much I appreciate their time and effort. Viva la WebOS!!

Just bumping so everyone can be reminded. All is still on schedule (may even be pushed up a bit, see below) and with the release of of the Pre 1.5 as I like to call it coming sooner rather than later our lovable homebrew folk at webos internals are likely going to need our help to raise the money they are probably going to need to buy the new devices so they can continue with the great work we all have grown to love since the release of the Pre and Pixi over a year ago.

There might be a slight change in plans if the device gets an announce date soon, I think we could possibly see it starting a week ahead of schedule so when the phone is available to everyone we can get to installing preware and installing all our favorite patches and kernels in a timely fashion. As we all know these things take time and testing so the sooner they get the devices the sooner we get to see everything we love.

Hello! It's time to get this show on the road! The Pre2 is now a reality, it is time to raise some $$ so the webOS internals team can get what they need, and maintain the servers etc. Hopefully everyone has purchased the Preware Homebrew Documentation app that is available in the App catalog. Let's go folks!

For those who are donating to the Pre 2 fund, please mark your donation as such and include your PreCentral username in the "Add special instructions to the seller" section you see after you log into PayPal, and post your donation amount here if you want to make it public. I hope we'll be able to have some sort of recognition program like last time (where donations over $30 received a "Top Homebrew Supporter" annotation on their PreCentral account).

The tally starts now at $0. The donation address is http://donate.webos-internals.org (thats "donate" dot "webos-internals" dot "org" for those who cannot see links).

Note that whilst Jason Robitaille prefers to remain separate from WebOS Internals, we are definitely including the purchase of a Pre 2 development device for him in this telethon, just as we did for the first telethon.